More than a book review.
This is more than a book review.
Forever Fat Loss resonated with me because the author looks beyond the diet for the true cause of fat gain.
This is significant to me because I have felt defined by my diet for so long.
People are continuously looking for answers. Any change might work for a time but then things change.
My change made me feel like I was not true to my own brand anymore.
I am in the process of rebranding Snap Pea Sheep.
Although I believe a whole Food, Plant Based diet completely turned around my health, I found it difficult to sustain without making sacrifices.
There are some circumstances that make it downright impossible!
Anytime you cannot control your own food, you compromise your diet and consequently, your health! At least here in the USA you do.
For sustainability. I am combining Whole Food, Plant based, Mediterranean and Blue Zone diets and lifestyles. I believe there are other cuisines that embrace good, healthy food, so I am not just sticking to these areas.
The main thing is to eliminate the toxic foods in our diet, regardless of whether it’s plant or animal.
Frankly, I tried not to use any plant-based substitutes for animal products. The list of ingredients for plant-based cheese, butter, meat (like Beyond meat), Tempeh, Setian, and dairy were basically the epitome of processed foods.
Anything with Artificial (or natural) flavors, colors, juices, spices, etc) are just a cover for a dizzying array of harmful chemicals.
Processed foods are the number one factor in obesity, fat gain, diabetes, heart disease, hormonal disfunction and just general bad health!
These chemically created foods and designed to be addictive by enhancing reward centers in the brain.
The more processed food you eat, the more addicted you are. Real food is practically tasteless.
I’ve been reading a book that surprisingly reiterates all of my conclusion!
It’s not just about Fat Loss!
Ari Whitten spoke in an online summit I’ve been attending so I snagged this book.
At first, it was a yawn fest. The same old blah, blah, blah. The more you cut calories, the slower your metabolism. Everyone has a “set point”. Any diet that leaves nutrition deficits will result in weight gain as soon as you eat normal again.
Yeah, we all know the yo yo!
It’s also disheartening when you have the set point of a blue whale.
Wait…what???
Well, my interest perked up when he pointed out that DEFICIENCIES are the issue! Deficiencies and toxins.
Deficiencies can be food, supplements, light, sleep, movement, meditation and even social.
Toxins are present everywhere. We are constantly bombarded by toxins that prevent our bodies from working properly.
Get that?
No counting calories! Identify your deficiencies, eliminate your toxins and just eat sensibly!
Food Deficiency.
If you eat nutrition dense food, you can eat less because your body is satiated.
Processed food is devoid of nutrition but high in calories.
You can’t possibly eat processed food and empty calories and get the nutrition you need.
This resonated with me when I was totally plant-based.
My immune system was compromised from various deficiencies and when I caught Covid, my health was devastated.
As I read how to lower my set point so may body will naturally shed fat, I realize I am doing everything wrong.
Starting with food depravation, the more I deprive myself, the more likely I am going to crave something I can’t have and then eat more that I would have to begin with.
We can literally be light deficient!
It’s important to know how sunlight affects us.
Our bodies produce some nutrients from sun exposure. We know about vitamin D. We are learning that vitamin D is essential to our health!
People living in areas that have little to no sun for months have serious depression issues. Could there be another nutrient we are not aware of?
We also get sun energy through the plants we eat. Plants create vitamins through photosynthesis.
Think about how certain plants respond to sunlight. Some are more sun or shade tolerant than others. People respond as well.
Think about how little sun we get these days. People shun the sun. They slather on sunscreen when they do go in the sun.
Many people work in an office all day with artificial light. If these people eat very little plants – they are setting themselves up for some major health issues.
Wrong light at the wrong time.
Ari gets in to light therapy as well.
I suffer from insomnia and sometimes go 38 to 40 hours without sleep. Everything I do after sunset is all wrong!!!
TV, phone, Kindle, laptop – all emit blue spectrum light. Especially the IPhone!
Last night, my husband wanted to turn off the TV and just talk. After 20 minutes of NOT talking and all sitting on our I-Phones, I flipped the TV back on and watched 5 episodes of Beat Bobby Flay.
Blue light prevents the body from producing melatonin! You need melatonin to sleep!
I’ve been using melatonin sleep patches when I could just turn off the TV, phone and Kindle three hours before bed!
Remember that sunlight I was talking about? What we get from the sun (and fire) is red light.
Red light helps regulate hormones and functions in the body that are influenced by the pineal gland.
Light naturally stimulates the pineal gland and is activated via the optic nerve, which therefore increases serotonin production.
Light affects our circadian rhythm!
I knew we had our biorhythms, but we all have a circadian rhythm too!
We have a cycle when our own biological rhythm dictates our sleep, activity, digestion, reproduction and possibly meditation.
Ari didn’t mention meditation, but meditation reduces cortisol, calms the adrenals and increases well being.
Light impacts our hormones in ways we don’t think about and upset our circadian rhythm. It would be prudent to understand how light affects us so we can limit exposure that would offset the body’s natural rhythm.
If I am going to continue watching TV at night, I intend to purchase some blue spectrum blocking glasses.
Movement or oxygen deficiency!
The body needs to MOVE. They body is meant to move. One common thing about people in the Blue Zones is the people are all extremely active even into their old age.
Ari is not talking about exercise here. He is just talking about moving.
Even slow walking all day, throughout the day, can have more impact than an hour at the gym three or four times a week.
When I thought about this, I thought about what movement actually does! It makes us breathe more. We get more oxygen into our lungs and subsequently our blood and to our cells.
Nitric Oxide is essential for retaining a healthy blood pressure.
Hemoglobin – the protein in red blood cells that picks up oxygen from the lungs – needs nitric oxide to enable blood vessels to open and supply the oxygen to tissues.
Basically, being sedentary causes oxygen deficiency.
Social deficiency
Art didn’t mention isolation as a social deficiency, but I have to take a page out of the Blue Zone’s lifestyle.
In all Blue Zone’s, people of all ages have value. In the healthier areas of Japan, they create incentives for families to live near each other.
People are encouraged to engage with others in the community. Having a purpose, something to look forward to.
With today’s lifestyle where we have far more Social Media friends than friends, we have physical contact with. We can go days or even weeks without seeing someone.
Covid created a country that largely works remote. Zoom meetings have replaced meeting rooms.
People communicate via text, emails, or even through social media posts more than they do in person or by phone.
These factors can cause a social deficiency that allows people to feel isolated, forgotten, insignificant and unappreciated. This constant negativity can cause chronic depression.
About the diet.
Ari gave all of these deficiencies as the underlying reasons for fat and obesity. He is really not concerned about diet at all.
He believes that people who adapt to any particular diet and see success is due to the elimination of processed or otherwise toxic foods.
I am a little up in the air on that because I had such incredible success when I was 100% WFPB. However, I have to contend with the fact that I developed a number of deficiencies that forced me to sway from my diet.
Obviously, his idea that any diet of deprivation is doomed to failure because it’s not sustainable.
He says it is not sustainable because people will eventually give in to cravings.
I say it is not sustainable because life happens! Anything that upsets the routine at home has the potential of throwing off one’s diet.
A celebration, holiday, illness, emergency room visit, hospitalization, rehabilitation, employment disruption, financial crisis, major health issue, death! Any of which makes it almost impossible to stick with any king of dietary routine.
In Summation
I was so glad I found this book because it gave me so much food for thought! (yeah, pun intended).
It makes me feel better about my re-branding. not that I am getting too far away from plant-based. I still have far more Plant-based meals and have little animal products.
8 ounces of grass fed ground beef went into my Hungarian cabbage rolls that fed my husband, grown son and I for three meals.
I totally recommend this book. Now that I am armed with awareness of my deficiencies. I can work on them.
Ari has some therapies I want to try. I was aware of red-light therapy in the 80’s and used the therapy for one hour daily for 56 days.
Find his book on Red Light Therapy here.
Frankly I noticed little change, but a physic was stunned to see my bright red aura. LOL.
